South Canterbury Times. FRIDAY, JAN. 23, 1880.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2133, 23 January 1880, Page 2

South Canterbury Times. FRIDAY, JAN. 23, 1880.

Periodically the vital-statistics of the different boroughs in New Zealand are published for the edification of the masses, and the proportion of deaths to the population is set forth in decimal numbers. We have no doubt that some ■useful object is aimed at, otherwise the trouble of calculating how many per thousand shuffle off this mortal coil in each different locality every month would not be taken. But after somevain efforts at discernment we have found the object so exceedingly obscure that we have given up further attempts at elucidation. There are places, in the old world, where the population is dense and settled, with reference to which vital statistics may possess a doubtful value. In such instances they may form a' sort of index to the salubrity of the locality, or the tenacity or longevity of the population. But even then they are not uniformly reliable, seeing that accidental as well as natural and obvious causes often affect the results. But in a comparatively sparsely populated country like New Zealand, where a large portion of the population is constantly on the move, and where influences with which the climate has nothing whatever to do contribute to the mortality table, vit<al statistics must evidently be of very doubtful utility. A glance at those returns conclusively shows that instead of being of any value they arc generally misleading. A month ago Timaru contrasted badly with other boroughs, last month Hokitiki heads the mortality list, and Timaru redeemed its character by producing only three deaths, and next month Dunedin, or some other fortunate locality, will probably cut an unprepossessing figure. Thus the vital statistics present, what a farmer would call, a rotation of crops, and fluctuate in a most eccentric manner, and according to no recognised rule whatever. One object in inviting attention to the practical worthlessness of the figures furnished by our diligent registrars is to prevent misapprehensions that might be damaging to individuals and communities. So far from the figures presented affording an opportunity of making reasonable deductions they are calculated to create very erroneous impressions. Nelson, for instance, which, like Hokitika, presents a most unfavorable appearance, according to late returns, is one of the -most charming sanatoriums in the Colony. But the very fact of its pleasant situation, and balmy health-giving atmosphere, and picturesque scenery, giving it a heightened value in the estimation of invalids, depreciates it in the figures of the statistician. People who have spent years of their lives amidst the smoke and stifling seweis of Dunedin, Christchurch, and Wellington, go to Nelson or some other salubrious spot in order that they may recruit themselves and breathe their last in a pure atmosphere.

Then again, in boroughs where the population is small, one or two fatal accidents will materially increase the decimal proportion. The causes of mortality in the Colonies are so varied that it is impossible to arrive at anything like fair inferences. The hereditary or slowly developing seeds of an untimely translation elsewhere are very often carried by immigrants' to the colony. The consumption of bad spirits introduced from abroad has likewise as potent an influence on our vital statistics as the evil spirits, which we X’cad of in sacred writ,had on”the popular health register during the age of miracles. It would be positively unfair: to credit any particular locality in New Zealand Avith the causes that regulate these statistics. As we have shewn these- causes, are too varied, too remote, too difficult to analyse and determine, to be of the slightest service in determining the relative salubrity of different localities or, the hygienic qualities of the climate of Now Zealand, as a whole. We cannot help thinking that many of the calculations. and deductions of the Colonial registrar and statist are like those of the astrologer, only adapted to mislead and confuse, aud not Avorth the trouble involved in their preparation.

Tin-:uk are few things better adapted for bringing law and justice into contempt than spasmodic action on the part of the civic authorities. Several glaring instances of this convulsive action have just been furnished. A telegram from Wellington the other day announced that the Employment of Females Act was about to be brought into vigorous operation in that city, and that Sergeant Anderson,-the giant of the force, had been appointed an inspector for the purpose. This was not very startling seeing that the measure in question, which is commonly known ns the “ Bradshaw Act,” has been in operation for years. If there was anything astonishing in the intelligence, itwas that Wellington should only, at this late hour, have wakened up to the fact that the law which regulates the employment of females in factories and warehouses, is not a deadletter. But the symptoms of uneasiness betrayed in Wellington, would seem to have travelled southwards. It is true that they manifested themselves in a different way. The owner of an “ Under-and-over ” table who had ventured to rattle the dice at a recent Show atßlueskin was pounced upon, and although he received a capital character from the Police Inspector, the unfortunate man was sent to gaol for a week, the committing Magistrate, Mr I. N. Watt, expressing the opinion that he was dealing very leniently. Not to be beaten the Wellington police have followed suit, and a petty gambler in that region has been rewarded for bis Under and Over vagaries with four weeks imprisonment. Now, we do not believe in gambling, but still less do we believe in

the spasmodic way in which the police and benches of some of onr larger cities exercise their petty tyranny at the expense of the small fry. AVhile bookmakers and consultation sweepers are allowed to net their hundreds of pounds, and while the back-parlors of tobaccoshops are swarmed nightly with cardsharpcrs and blacklegs, it looks indecent and unbecoming on the part of the police and their magisterial benchmen to make a sudden swoop on the hand-to-mouth artists, who venture b3 r amusing their patrons to turn over a few shillings at an occasional fair. There are worse things than the “Under and-over ” tables, carried on right under the noses of these highly virtuous officials—worse things absolutely enjoying their sanction, or at least passing unreproved—and we cannot help thinking that the facility with which the owners of these tables have been swept into prison savours far more of a spirit of petty tyranny than a desire to make men honest, and, by keeping them out of gaol when there is no necessity for their incarceration, to prevent as far as possible the manufacture of criminals.